UK banking group Barclays announced on Tuesday the launch of its new digital advice service, Barclays Plan & Invest, which notably aims to tackle the UK’s advice gap and give more people the confidence and support to invest their savings. According to Barclays, the new service will create a personalized investment plan that’s tailored to a customer’s goals, with Barclays then managing the investments on their behalf, traditionally known as discretionary portfolio management.
“Unlike many robo-advice providers, Barclays will adapt the investment plan to any changes in the market or the customer’s circumstances and check-in with them at least once a year, to make sure that the investments are still right for the customer and that they’re making the most of their tax allowances. If anything needs to change, for example if they would benefit from moving their investments into an ISA account, Barclays will take care of it.”
Barclays further revealed it has partnered with Scalable Capital to launch the new service, which will give customers access to the bank’s pick of both active and passive funds through a managed portfolio. The service will also initially be piloted with Barclays current account customers who have at least £5,000 to invest and will be accessed through Online Banking, with dedicated support over the phone. While sharing more details about the service, Dirk Klee, CEO of Wealth Management and Investments at Barclays, stated:
“We launched Plan & Invest after listening to our customers, who said they wanted an investment service that gave them the convenience and affordability of robo-advice, but with more of the personalisation of Wealth Management. I firmly believe that everyone should have access to affordable advice and Plan & Invest is just the first step in our plans to open up the tools we use with our Wealth clients to more people.”
The bank added it will continue to develop the service over the coming months, with plans to launch on the Barclays app later this summer.
